the Bluecoat – 4×4

4 x 4. 6 March – ENDS Sunday 10 May 2009Free admissionFour galleries, four exhibitions. 4×4 is the first in an occasional series of simultaneous exhibitions exploring the unique features of the Bluecoat’s new gallery spaces.

The Bluecoat re-opened in March 2008 after a multi award winning redevelopment designed by Dutch architects Biq. The Bluecoat, a building which has played host to exhibitions of contemporary art for almost a century, now for the first time has four gallery spaces purpose built for showing contemporary visual art.

Shana Moulton: Selections from Whispering Pines.American artist Shana Moulton works in video and performance. In Whispering Pines she plays an anxiety-ridden hypochondriac who seeks comfort in new age remedies and shamanistic rituals. Infused with humour and pathos, Moulton’s visual narratives are a surreal investigation of psychedelic fantasy and reality through low-tech video production and corny music.

Colin Darke & David Mabb: Commodity FormThe combination of two solo painting projects sets up a debate between the artists’ social and political concerns. Colin Darke presents The Capital Paintings, 480 A4-sized paintings on unprimed canvas depicting random objects, from product packaging to ticket stubs. They refer to a previous series where the artist copied volumes of Karl Marx’s Das Capital onto flat objects. David Mabb’s Rhythm 69 comprises 70 paintings influenced by the wallpaper designs of 19th century artist and writer William Morris, and referencing the work of artist/filmmaker Hans Richter.

David Osbaldeston: Your Answer Is MineDavid Osbaldeston presents a large-scale print housed within a billboard structure in the gallery space. The print is mainly text and was created over six months of intense labour, starting with a collage of collected materials, which Osbaldeston copied as a pencil drawing, photocopied and further enlarged through soft-ground etching. Through this time-consuming process and use of different media, Osbaldeston draws attention to the relationship between original and reproduced, the slowness of the hand-made and the speed of the machine-made.

Anya GallaccioAnya Gallaccio presents sculptures and a new installation for her exhibition at the Bluecoat. The highly regarded British artist will experiment further with makramé as a form of drawing in space by working with rope and intricate patterns of knots.

4×4 can be seen as an opportunity for career development, where emerging artists have the chance to exhibit in a museum-quality space that allows them greater exposure to audiences. It can also be a chance for more established artists to try something different or use the gallery as a test-site for projects and ideas.”